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<p class="title"><b>BlenderFDS</b> Release Notes</p>
<p class="body">
<i>Copyright (C) 2013 Emanuele Gissi, http://www.blenderfds.org</i><br>
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.<br>
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; see included license file for details.
</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>

<p class="header">2013-12-26: BlenderFDS 3.0.0RC1 (UNSTABLE)</p>
<p class="warning">This is a release candidate, <b>do not use it for production</b>.</p>
<p class="body">A new BlenderFDS release is out. This BlenderFDS version shall be installed on <b>Blender 2.69</b>.<br>It does not work with older versions and it is not guaranteed to work with newer ones.</p>
<p class="body">First of all, I would like to <i>sincerely thank</i> all the contributors that financially supported BlenderFDS development during the 2013 crowdfunding campaign.<br>A particular thank goes to our <b>Bronze Sponsors:</b></p>
<ul class="a">
	<li>Sergei Maximov;</li>
	<li>backbone;</li>	
	<li>Kristopher Overholt;</li>
	<li>Combustion Science & Engineering, Inc. (Stephen Olenick).</li>
</ul>
<p class="body">This version of BlenderFDS is the result of a huge effort: the codebase was complitely reviewed and restructured to make place for new features and guarantee future maintainability. The source code is now fully object oriented, fully commented, and much more readable (at least for me ;-).</p>
<p class="body">New features for <b>users</b>:</p>
<ul class="a">
	<li>New exporting target is the recent <b>FDS version 6</b> (File > Export > FDS case).</li>
    <li>BlenderFDS can <b>import existing FDS case files</b> to BlenderFDS scenes (File > Import > FDS case).</li>
	<li>Creation of <b>GE1 cad description file</b> (Scene Panel > DUMP Panel), that allows realistic visualization in Smokeview6.</li>
	<li>Full support for Blender drawing scaling and units (Scene Panel > Units).</li>
	<li>New geometric description <b>PIXELS</b> for flat faces (Object Panel > OBST Panel > XB, for namelists that support faces). Faces of any shape, normal to any axis, can be exported to FDS (eg. round VENTs!).</li>
	<li>Namelist grouping and sorting by Blender empties (Add Blender Menu > Empty). Parent your namelists under a Blender Empty, and discover them <b>properly sorted and grouped</b> in the FDS case file.</li>
	<li>New tool for FDS MESH creation (Object Panel > MESH Panel > IJK): <b>set cell sizes and align</b> them to the global reference system, for easier mutual alignment of MESHes.</li>
	<li>New tool for calculating FDS SURF <b>HRRPUA and TAU_Q</b> according to EU and US standards (Material Panel > SURF Panel > TAU_Q).</li>
	<li>Improved user interface (Eg. geometry visualization tools are now readily available in the user interface).</li>
	<li>Faster and <b>more precise</b> voxelization algorithm.</li>
	<li>Free FDS text file is now fully integrated into Blender interface, config.fds external file is not needed any more.</li>
	<li>"Show geometry" button visualizes the geometry as it is going to be exported to FDS. This allows the user to check it visually.</li>
	<li>Multiple geometries can now have a <b>suffix added to their IDs</b> (Object Panel > Any namelist panel > ID), eg. add z coordinate to thermocouples ID values: <i>tc+1.20, tc+1.30, tc+1.40, ...</i></li>
	<li><b>FIXME</b> add missing new features</li>
</ul>
<p class="body">New features for <b>developers</b>:</p>
<ul class="a">
	<li>New <b>programming API</b> <i>scene/object.to_fds(), scene/object.from_fds()</i>. Build or modify your geometry using Python!</li>
	<li>New debug mode and timing.</li>
</ul>


<p class="header">2012-08-20: BlenderFDS 2.0.1</p>
<p class="body">Fixed issue 20.</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">2012-08-20: BlenderFDS 2.0.0<br>“Sta tranquil cl'è sot an tindon!”</p>
<p class="body">According to the dialect spoken in Mirandola (Modena, Italy), one of the towns struck by the earthquake
of May 2012, <i>“Sta tranquil cl'è sot an tindon!”</i> means <i>“Don't worry, it's under a tent!”</i>. Being a fire officer,
some (small) parts of this release were developed under a tent in Mirandola.</p>
<p class="body">For this reason, the release is
dedicated to the wonderful colleagues from Modena fire brigade I met, especially to Valter Melotti and Marco Caiumi, and to the people from Emilia region struggling to get back to normal life. I deeply admire their innate optimistic attitude.</p>
<p class="body">This BlenderFDS version shall be installed on <b>Blender 2.64</b>. It does not work with older
versions and it is not guaranteed to work with newer ones.</p>
<p class="body">I am sorry to say that BlenderFDS 2.0.0 documentation is still a work in progress. I decided to release
earlier and then continue working on updated documentation.</p>
<p class="body">Even if this is a BlenderFDS point-zero release, it has seen throughout testing: many
thanks go to Fabian Braennstroem and Stephen Olenick for kindly testing the release candidate and reporting bugs during this northern
hemisphere hot summer. But it likely still contains bugs. I am ready
to fix them all, please open issues at <a href="http://www.blenderfds.org/">http://www.blenderfds.org</a></p>
<p class="body">Here are the new features:</p>
<ul class="a">
	<li>After a long work, here is the
	new voxelization algorithm: faster, more precise, reliable,
	resilient. BlenderFDS is now using a new Blender feature for voxel
	generation (the Remesh modifier). Voxel size is now set on a
	per-object basis. See the wiki documentation for implications. The
	need for a new implementation was first suggested by Łukasz Bałaga
	at the end of 2011. Support for the implementation was offered by
	Matthias Zähringer.</li>
	<li>Generated voxels can now be
	easily visualized and interactively modified by the user before
	exporting.</li>
	<li>New example case. During the
	period of March-June 2012, BlenderFDS received intense testing by
	application on a complex case study. Following the request from the
	Provincia autonoma di Trento (Autonomous Province of Trento, Italy),
	a fire safety study was performed on Castel Thun, a fascinating
	historic castle located at the foot of the Italian Alps (Val di Non,
	Trento, Italy). As it is the case for many medieval buildings,
	Castle Thun geometry is complex and irregular. This example case is
	now included in BlenderFDS package.</li>
	<li>Following Eric Li ideas and
	Craig Mills suggestions on MESH alignment, I modified the IJK
	parameter management. I hope it is now much easier to build multiple
	and correctly aligned MESH objects.</li>
	<li>Vastly improved error management
	and new specific test suite: check of quotation marks is improved,
	better and informative exception management, better management of
	geometric corner cases, better file check.</li>
	<li>Improved FDS file generation:
	much more readable by humans, more information about the generating
	objects, better IDs for single and multiple cases, timing report for
	each object</li>
	<li>Object manifold check was
	refactored, though it's now less important than before as the new
	voxelization algorithm works well even if the geometry is not
	perfectly manifold.</li>
	<li>Full support of the new Blender
	Bmesh subsystem.</li>
	<li>Automatic management of
	OUTLINE=.TRUE. parameter .</li>
	<li>THICKEN=.TRUE. exposed in the
	UI.</li>
</ul>
<p class="body">Do not forget that BlenderFDS file format was slightly changed. Please note that you need to review your
old BlenderFDS files:</p>
<ul class="a">
	<li>check all your MESH objects and
	set the IJK parameter again,</li>
	<li>check all your voxel objects and
	set the new voxel size on a per-object basis.</li>
</ul>
<p class="body">I hope you are going to enjoy using BlenderFDS 2.0.0 as much as I do.</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">2012-01-02: BlenderFDS 1.2.0<br>“Feliz Pascua”</p>
<p class="body">A new BlenderFDS release is out. This BlenderFDS version shall be installed on <b>Blender 2.62</b>. <br>It does
not work with older versions and it is not guaranteed to work with newer ones.</p>
<p class="body">Exported objects and materials are now alphabetically sorted by name and by namelist group; this fixes
issue #16 (http://code.google.com/p/blenderfds/issues/detail?id=16). Thanks to Craig Mills for his code contribution and to Antoni
Balaguer for proposing the idea.</p>
<p class="body">The bf_export.py code was deeply restructured.</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">2012-01-02: BlenderFDS 1.1.2<br>“Gott nytt år”</p>
<p class="body">A new BlenderFDS release is out. This BlenderFDS version shall be installed on <b>Blender 2.61</b>. <br>It does
not work with older versions and it is not guaranteed to work with newer ones.</p>
<p class="body">A neat new feature: copying active object FDS properties to other selected
objects. <a href="http://code.google.com/p/blenderfds/wiki/BlenderObjectsToFDSNamelistGroups?ts=1325501001&amp;updated=BlenderObjectsToFDSNamelistGroups#Copying_FDS_parameters_and_geometry_from_Blender_active_object_t">Wiki
documentation modified accordingly</a>.</p>
<p class="body">Fixed in this release: many small modifications to the wiki.</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">2011-10-21: BlenderFDS 1.0.3<br>“Bright future”</p>
<p class="body">A new BlenderFDS release is out. This BlenderFDS version shall be installed on <b>Blender 2.60</b>. <br>It does
not work with older versions and it is not guaranteed to work with newer ones.</p>
<p class="body">Fixed in this release: some small improvement in export file header. A bright future ahead.</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">2011-07-10: BlenderFDS 1.0.2<br>“Back from vacations”</p>
<p class="body">The new Blender release is out and breaks the old BlenderFDS. So a new BlenderFDS release is out. This
BlenderFDS version shall be installed on <b>Blender 2.58</b>. It does not work with older versions and it is not guaranteed to work with newer ones.</p>
<p class="body">Fixed in this release: a Blender supporting script has changed its path, correction applied, nothing else.</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">2011-04-18: BlenderFDS 1.0.1<br>“Everybody is welcome in Genova”</p>
<p class="body">Blender 2.5x series is now stable.
<b>BlenderFDS seems rocky stable</b>, too. Good news, isn't it?</p>
<p class="body">This version of BlenderFDS shall be installed on <b>Blender 2.57 stable</b>. It will not work with older
versions.</p>
<p class="body">New in this release:</p>
<ul class="a">
	<li>Bug fix: division by zero in a rare corner case. But, helas, it happened during a presentation...</li>
	<li>Blender API has changed again. Fixed some function and variable names.</li>
</ul>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">2011-03-09: BlenderFDS 0.71<br>“Ku-Ring-Gai”</p>
<p class="body">BlenderFDS 0.71 must be installed on <b>Blender 2.56a</b> <b>beta</b>. It will not work with other
versions.</p>
<p class="body">This release fixes some minor 0.70 bugs discovered early in the morning by passionate users:</p>
<ul class="a">
	<li>do not insert an ID parameter in several namelists as SLCF, HOLE... (see <a href="http://code.google.com/p/fds-smv/issues/detail?id=887&amp;can=1&amp;q=reporter%3Aemanuele.gissi">this FDS issue</a>).</li>
	<li>UI error message on non-manifold voxelized objects is not displayed in edit mode.</li>
	<li>Improve MESH comments.</li>
	<li>FDS input files should never exceed 100 colums, really!</li>
</ul>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">2011-03-08: BlenderFDS 0.70</p>
<p class="body">BlenderFDS 0.70 must be installed on <b>Blender 2.56a</b> <b>beta</b>. It will not work with other
versions.</p>
<p class="body">Blender API has changed again.
BlenderFDS has evolved still. Its code has been largely refactored
for speed and maintainability. Some aspects of the user interface
have been improved. Many small bugs detected by users were solved.</p>
<p class="body">The annoying “UI freezes when
exporting” issue is still not solved: Blender fault. When you
export a complex file, you shall wait several minutes for the process
to complete. During the process the user interface remains
unresponsive...</p>
<p class="body">BlenderFDS file format has changed
slightly. BlenderFDS can import and update your old files created
with previous versions: geometry is retained, but double check the
properties just to be sure that everything works well. 
</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">2010-12-17: BlenderFDS 0.55</p>
<p class="body">BlenderFDS 0.55 must be installed on <b>Blender 2.55</b> <b>beta</b>. It will not work with other
versions.</p>
<p class="body">Blender API has changed again. No
problem, BlenderFDS has evolved again! The annoying “UI freezes
when exporting” issue is still not solved: Blender fault. No new
features, waiting for FDS 6.</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">2010-10-10: BlenderFDS 0.53</p>
<p class="body">BlenderFDS 0.53 must be installed on <b>Blender 2.54</b> <b>beta</b>. It will not work with other
versions.</p>
<p class="body">Blender API has changed a lot. No problem, BlenderFDS has also evolved! The annoying “UI freezes when
exporting” issue is still not solved. What a pity.</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">2010-07-29: BlenderFDS 0.50</p>
<p class="body">BlenderFDS 0.50 must be installed on
<b>Blender 2.53 beta</b>. It will not work with other versions.</p>
<p class="body">This release solves some small bugs
and can be installed on Blender 2.53 beta. The annoying “UI freezes
when exporting” issue is still not solved. But it's only an
aesthetic issue. I am quite happy with BlenderFDS now!</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="header">2010-05-05: BlenderFDS 0.44</p>
<p class="body">BlenderFDS 0.44 must be installed on <b>Blender 2.52 alfa</b>. It will not work with other versions.</p>
<p class="body">It is our pleasure to announce the first public release of BlenderFDS, an open source, cross-platform
graphical user interface (GUI) for FDS, which has been developed over
the past several months by a small group of FDS users.</p>
<p class="body"><br></p>


<p class="footer">BlenderFDS is open-source and free for all to use.<br>Enjoy.</p>
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